


Son of the White Rose, Daughter of the Red Rose

by Rogercat



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Fantasy, Gender Role Reversal, Historical Fantasy, Historical References, Name Changes, Royalty, The Wars of the Roses, inspired by RL history, secret romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 23:47:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21837688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rogercat/pseuds/Rogercat
Summary: when all the female members of a royal dynasty dies and only a few princes remain as targets for marriage in order to claim the throne of Britannia, the oldest prince Julian makes a few movements on his own...partly inspired by the RL Henry VII Tudor and Elizabeth of York, and what ended the War of the Roses
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	1. Unwanted marriage

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nuredhel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nuredhel/gifts).



The realm of Britannia, late March year 1473: 

Prince Julian, the oldest child of Queen Edwina VI, the first Queen of the York dynasty, was worried about his mother. Rumour said that her health was not good since Easter, that she was slowly becoming a shadow of her former self. 

“The birth of my stillborn brother three years ago was a heavy blow. And she is not a young woman anymore…” 

His mother was 40 years old, and everything suggested that she might not be long for this world. Edelia, his oldest sister, was only twelve years old, too young to be ruling alone. 

“My prince, the Queen requests your presence.” 

He could not disobey. 

  
  


The chamber was filled with sweet-smelling herbs, but it did not manage to hide the smell of illness. The Queen laid in the bed, looking a lot more thinner than what Julian last had seen his mother. Her many pregnancies had changed her body. 

And someone was already there. The prince consort, his stepfather Edward Woodville, the father of the younger royal children. 

“My lady mother, Mylord.”

His mother turned her head to look at him. 

“Julian? Good that you are here. I have...decided on your marriage. **_You will be sent as a consort to the Sultana of Turkey._ ** ” 

Julian managed to hide his terror at those words, though he felt himself go pale. The very fate he had secretly feared, and would be unable to protest. A royal prince simply did not disobey his lady mother, the Queen, especially not when it came to his marriage. 

“I thank you for making this decision, Mother, for I feared that your illness would not allow you enough time to ensure my future. Now I can sleep peacefully at night, knowing that I have a future lady wife that awaits my arrival to her court.” 

He saw the trumpf on Edward's face, and chose to leave under the excuse to pray to the Holy Mother that his journey would go well. But in reality, Julian hurried away to a vastly different place. He could not stay in the palace for now, he needed to meet with his father. And someone else needed to get those news before he left Britannia forever. 

“ _ Edelle... _ **_Edelle_ ** _ must get those news! If she does not rescue me from this fate, Edward and the Woodville family will rule Britannia though his daughters, my half-sisters! _ ”

At his currently 18 years of age, Julian was the only child from the Queen's first marriage, which had been annulled soon after his birth, caused by that his father Richard had a strange accident down the stairs which had left him crippled and unable to sire more children. As he had been unable to do his most important duty as a prince consort, the marriage between Edwina and Richard had quickly been annulled, so she could find a new husband and he had been sent to a temple with priests for the rest of his life here in London. But rumours said that Edwina had desired to marry someone else than Richard, as they were distant relatives married together in order to join two claims to the throne. Julian, as the oldest son, would be the first in line behind his two surviving sisters, before his brothers. 

  
  


Laughter from a group of fellow young men coming closer as Julian rounded a corner, and he did hide himself in the shadows when he heard one unwelcomed voice: 

“Father have promised me that once Julian is out of the way by him being sent to join the male harem of the Empress, I will be the heir to my sweet sisters! In a few years, no one will remember that Mother actually has been married twice!” 

Henry. The half-brother two years his junior, and whose personality crashed horribly with Julian. Where Julian held up a image of piety and scholarship since he loved learning, Henry enjoyed feasts and showed all the signs of having discovered the forbidden fruit that Julian tried to resist because he wanted to be chaste until the wedding night. In fact, there was several ladies at court who had been found in Henry's bed over the past year behind the back of his parents. And if one of them bore a child which could lay a claim on the throne though the father...

“No...no...I must do something to stop this!” 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

The former Prince consort, Richard Plantagenet, had just been helped by his allowed servants with a few necessary matters and redressed when he heard footsteps arriving in high speed. 

“Lord Richard! Your son, prince Julian, is on the way here…!” 

They hurried to place him on the bed and covered his lower body with a thick woolen blanket. The horrible fall over eighteen years ago had left Richard unable to stand up on his own without support, his crippling almost making him paralyzed from the waist down. 

Something had to be bad, given how upset Julian seemed when he arrived. 

“Papa…”

Oh, by the holy Mother, Julian only addressed him like nowadays that when it was really bad about to happen in the royal family. Richard had a trusted servant acting as a spy at the court, and knew how it was with the Queen's health. 

“Are it your mother? What have she caused noe, despite her illness?” 

This made Julian start crying. 

“Papa...she want me...she wants me to be sent to Turkey! Not as a Prince consort to a fellow royal court, but the Sultana will only view me as a new member of her harem, with the difference of that I have royal blood in my veins!”

_ No. _ Had the illness made Edwina mad? The Sultana of Turkey was already past her childbearing years, and would most likely pass over the throne to her own daughter at any time now, especially as the Crown princess of Turkey had borne several children though chosen concubines from her own harem. If Julian arrived to Turkey, he was unlikely to become a Prince consort, merely yet another concubine who would be shut into a temple at the death of the powerful woman who held his life in her hands. That was, if Julian managed to avoid dying at a young age because he was viewed as a rival by another concubine, or passed on to some woman at the imperial court as a husband because he had not been summoned to the bed of the Sultana. 

“For a woman who became Queen after the death of my own elderly mother and my two sisters being killed in battle during a rebellion, Edwina have always been selfish…!”

If anything, Richard would not accept that kind of fate for his only child, the sole good thing from a five-years-long marriage that had not exactly been happy for either himself or Queen Edwina. Their marriage did happen mostly to tie together two claims to the throne of Britannia, chosen by their now late parents, and it had not been made easier when it had taken a few years before the birth of Julian, mainly because Edwina had used her position as the then Lady Commander of the royal army to spend time away from Richard and the marriage bed, leaving her husband alone and pitied at the court. 

”Julian, look at me.”

The oldest prince had inherited the fair looks of his mother in her youth, though he had Richard own reddish golden hair and blue eyes. As the oldest prince, Julian was a price for any woman in Britannia with the ambition of either marrying into the royal family, or following the example of Edwina herself, becoming the first Queen of a new dynasty if both the current princesses of York died before they was old enough for marriage and having their own children. 

“Julian, do you already have someone who you would like to marry, but have been unable to tell your mother? Your reaction in distress is hiding more than the terror of being sent so far south.” 

Julian swallowed hard to stop crying, so he could answer his father properly. 

“ **_Edelle Tudor._ ** ”

“Ah, I can see why she have caught your eye.” 

A noble woman four years Julian's senior in age, a descendant from House Plantagenet though a illegitimate descent. Her claim to the throne of Britannia came from her father, lord Magnus Beaufort, who once had been a potential new Prince consort for Edwina during the months between the annulment of her marriage to Richard and her reveal of having married Edward Woodville in secret, based on that he had managed to sire a daughter in his first and so far only marriage. 

“I...have been exchanging letters with her in secret for the past two years…” 

Tha with the letters was a serious sign of how Richard felt for the Earl of Richmond, as Edelle Tudor held as title since her birth due to her mother dying in childbirth. And as Edelle Tudor was still unmarried…

“Write to her at once about what you had found out for your future, the moment that you return to the palace. If you are willing to live in exile for marrying without permission from your mother or sister, then do so.”

Edward Woodville would not manage to place his children on the throne so easily, even if he was the father of the current Crown princess. 

As Julian left, Richard grabbed a quill to start writing a letter to Magnus Beaufort. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

When Julian returned to the palace, he did his best to avoid being seen by the courtiers. Soon he was back in his own chambers, the ones he had as the eldest prince of Britannia. His writing desk, where a clean parchment, quill and a inkwell had already been placed by the servants this morning, knowing that he would most likely be found writing something in the evening. Julian felt his head spinning from what he had found out today, but somehow he managed to write down a readable message despite his trembling hands. 

“Maria! Maria, where are you?! I need you!”

The maid arrived in a hurry, alarmed by how her young master acted. 

“Lady Edelle Tudor, at once! She have to arrive to the temple where my father lives!” Julian pleaded, handing her the letter where he just had placed his personal seal. She nodded, seeing his distress. It had to be really bad if he desperately needed the help of the lady who had captured his heart in secret. 

  
  


The next day, Julian was sent away from the royal palace, his mother insisting on that he could start his journey as a betrothed prince since she was feeling worse. He would stay at several temples on the road towards the southern coast of Britannia, where a small fleet would bring him away from his homeland forever. 

Only a hour after that the carriage with Julian had left London, a different one left the capital with Richard Plantagenet, smuggling himself out from the temple in a different direction. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With his mother and two sisters dead, Julian is now the male heir to the throne

But fate had different plans than what mortal humans desired. Unknown to Queen Edwina as she took her final breath on 9 April from pneumonia, a outbreak of plague had entered her realm. 

Julian's journey to the coast had been interrupted when those news came from London, and he had to stay in the temple to avoid that he caught the plague as well. 

“Both my sisters are ill?!” 

Edelia and Rakel, two innocent girls aged 12 and 10, the only two daughters to survive early childhood among the royal York siblings. 

Since he was unable to leave the temple for his own safety, the only thing Julian could do, was praying. 

Praying for the sisters he had not seen in several months since Christmas, and for their survival. If they lived long enough to ensure that Edelle Tudor would find him, he would be able to make his own life. 

  
  


Then even more horrible news came in late June: 

The 12-year-old York Queen had died on 25 June from the plague, with a reign of only eleven weeks, her sister joining her not even a hour later. Two brothers had also fallen victims to the same disease. The royal York family had fallen in numbers even more, with only three of Edwina VI's seven children who had survived past infanthood still alive, all of them sons. Julian was now the one with the strongest claim to the throne, with Henry and their sole remaining brother Charles, who was only seven years old, as his heirs. 

And this meant that Julian and Henry, who were both of marriageable age yet still not promised in marriage to someone, would be targets for nobles across the realm, who desired to take the crown by marrying one of them. In fact, Julian knew that it was not his status as the oldest prince that was the big danger now: the marriage between Edwina and Edward had not really been popular among the common people or the royal court despite bearing fruit in multitude children, for Edward was a widower before marrying the Queen and some whispered that she had removed her first husband Richard in a such manner that would make it easier for her to remarry a man of her own choice. 

“Edelle...please find me soon! If someone else among the nobles at court arrives here and marries me before you, I have no idea what will happen to me!”

At night, he had nightmares about suffering the same fate as his father, that he would only be kept as prince consort long enough to sire a daughter on a wife and then removed, living the rest of his natural life locked away in a temple after being forced to make the same vows as priests. 

“Mylord...prince Julian!”

A female voice from the small window? He had not dreamed, then. Carefully, Julian rose from the bed and looked out. A familiar face. 

“Maria! You survived the plague?!”

“All thanks to you sending me off with that letter this spring. Mylady Edelle is on the way, she sends her apologies for being so late in acting as a heroine and saving the prince in distress like in stories, but the roads have been blocked due to your late sister not wanting people to travel around and risk spreading the plague further.” 

Julian felt a burden lifted from his shoulders at those words. 

“Please, tell her to come as quickly as she can! We need to consummate a marriage and travel to London as the new royal couple before the Woodwilles tries to catch power though Henry!” 

He knew that Edward and his two remaining sons was at Ludow, being trapped there due to the plague and unable to leave for now. But the Woodwille family would not allow the crown slip though their fingers, not as long as they still had two royal children left alive. 

Maria promised to give his words to her mistress about that he was willing to marry her, and Julian saw her climb over the temple wall like a shadow. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

One the morning of 22 August 1483, a group of armed riders arrived to the temple. 

“Myladies, we can not offer rooms for you. The plague have missed this area yet and we have a important guest in sanctuary....”

The leader, a fair-haired woman in armour, only forced herself past the priests and rode closer. Once her horse stood at the gate in the wall, she held up a red rose in one raised hand. 

“ **_Julian! Julian of York! The daughter of the Red Rose desires the hand of the son of the White Rose in marriage! The Red Rose swear to keep only one husband for life!_ ** ”

He heard her, the voice he had prayed to hear all this time, understood what she meant. That she would take him as her prince consort, and that he did not have to fear about being treated as only a stud in order to gain a princess as heir. 

Tearing a white rose from the rose bush at his side, Julian began to run towards the gate. The head priest had spotted him, and now tried to stop him. 

“Your Majesty! You are promised in marriage to the Sultana of Turkey…! You will invite war if you break the promise between your late mother and her...” 

But Julian did not want that life. 

“I saw the marriage contract, and the agreement only mentioned that one of mother's older sons would be that prince to be sent south, not which one! Henry can take my place as the groom, as Charles are too young to consummate a marriage!” 

Loosening his reddish gold hair out of the braid so it moved freely by his movements, he allowed Edelle to see him come closer. In response, she made her horse gallop towards him. 

“Edelle! Make me yours! Make me the consort at your side and the father of your children!”

She took hold of his outstretched arm, the one holding the white rose, and pulled him up on the horse behind her, to bring him away from the temple with her, by his own will. There was nothing the priests could do to prevent this from happening. 

By Julian choosing what he saw as the best way to avoid civil war about the crown though him and Henry marrying rivals about the royal power in Britannia, his own House of York had just been replaced on the throne by the House of Tudor. 


	3. Queen and Prince consort

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new era starts in Britannia with a new Dynasty

The Tower of London, a few weeks later: 

Edward Woodwille could not believe what had happened. Everything had worked so perfectly this spring, with him finally managing to make Edwina agree that Julian would have a powerfulful role as a consort to the Sultana of Turkey, and that his stepson would be sent away for the marriage as soon as possible, before he was caught in a unacceptable situation with a noble woman who claimed to loving him. 

And then both his surviving daughters had died from the plague, with two of their younger sons. 

“Henry is the one who should be there in Westminster Abbey, to be crowned as a prince consort!”

His oldest son was held in a cell not far, Edward had heard the sixteen-year-old throwing tantrums almost daily about various things, such as the food being inedible, the bed was too hard, the cell not a suitable place for a prince. Before, Edward had ignored it, thinking that it was just a coincidence as Henry was growing from boy until mind, but ever since the death of his wife and daughter, with him, Henry and Charles stuck together for a very long time due to being unable to leave anywhere thanks to the plague, the now double widower had been forced to realize just how much Edwina had dotted on their first child together. 

Edwina had never loved Richard, and with Julian acting as a ever-present reminder of her first marriage, she had turned all her love and care towards her next child, a son with the man she wanted, despite that Henry was not the female heir she needed. Unfortunately, this maternal love made her blind to how she had spoiled Henry rotten, their oldest son growing used to always be in the center of female attention, used to be treated as if he was male heir after his sisters instead of Julian and expect to be given precious gifts from different ladies who may not have honest intentions. 

A such behavior was unacceptable from a royal prince, yet all this did not matter now. 

Edelle Tudor had managed to beat everyone else who had been searching for Julian of York the moment there was a confirmation to the royal court that he had managed to avoid the plague, and also prevented to sail to Turkey by the same illness that had closed off the harbors in southern Britannia. She had found Julian in a temple, and immediately brought him with her to undergo a wedding ceremony which confirmed their marriage by consummation. 

That wedding night had made Edelle Tudor the new Queen of Britannia, both by marriage and right of conquest as there had been a brief battle to challenge her claim not many days after, and Julian of York as her prince consort. 

“Damn you, Richard Plantagenet! You and Magnus Beaufort! The two of you planned this together, in order to strike back against the women who tried to control your lives!” 

Edward knew that Magnus Beaufort had been a choice to being prince consort after Richard, based on his youth that would make him able to sire children on Edwina for a long time because he was younger than Edwina and that he already had sired a daughter in his marriage to Elizabeth Tudor. 

And yet Magnus had the nerve of claiming that the twelve years older Elizabeth had not been a kind wife to him, disappointed that she was ordered to marry an immature boy and not an adult man who could make her pregnant immediately after the wedding! That she had forced herself on him the moment he had started to change from a boy into a man, and that Edelle's night of conception was a abhorrent memory that had made him unable to accept the very idea of a new marriage!

“Damn it all…” 

Edward had not idea what awaited him in the new reign which was not created by his own blood, but one thing was for sure: Julian would use the fact that their earlier roles were now reversed, with Edward once again a widower without any power and Julian as a prince consort instead. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

As the fathers of the bride respective groom, it was only natural that Richard and Magnus had a place of honor both during the the coronation ceremony and the official wedding. 

Yet at the end of the day, Magnus pulled his daughter with him for a short, private talk: 

“Remember what I have taught you, sweeting, remember to never treat Julian in the same manner as  _ she _ did to me! He may be four years older than what I was at your birth, but that does not…”

Edelle knew why her father was talking about this. Her mother had been a cruel woman, using her adulthood and power as the wife in the marriage to mistreat Magnus, using him as target for her disappointment at the age difference between them and her behavior had left him terrified of sharing a bed with a woman ever again. Magnus still wore faint scars on his arms and chest, well hidden by his clothing, eternal reminders of what happened the horrible night his daughter had been conceived. 

“I promise, father. My first clear memory is of how you ordered the gates to Pembroke Castle to be closed when your mother arrived there to bring you south to London as a potential new prince consort to Edwina VI, and how the passing months was spent in a siege, your desperate attempt to win enough time to passed over.”

And that had happened. At the news of Edwina marrying Edward Woodwille as her new prince consort had came, Magnus' deeply dismayed mother had found herself defeated in the goal of seeing her son on the throne and cursed Magnus for his defiance, screaming so loudly that everyone on the castle wall had heard her screaming that her son was a fool who would never realize what he just had lost. 

“Besides, father, there is a good sign for us already.”

The way she held her hand on her still flat belly, could only mean one thing. 

  
  


At the same time, Richard moved his wheelchair to try and keep up with Julian as they had a similar talk. 

“Have you and Edelle talked about what to do with Edward and Henry? They still pose a threat for you two, with Henry as your heir until that Edelle has given birth.” 

Julian already had discussed this with Edelle the night before, after that they had used some careful love-making to calm down their nerves for today. They must be careful in bed until that the risk for a miscarriage was over. 

“Henry will be sent to Turkey in my place, once our child is born. Whatever a son or a daughter, the Tudor dynasty shall not be haunted by the Woodwille family.” 

“Sounds good. You can always use the plague as a legal excuse for not sending him off right away, that he was in danger of catching it and dying before the travel, or not wanting to have him bring the illness to Turkey. Would be horribly bad for your reputation among the other royal courts in Europe if it came out that a prince of Britannia caused the whole Ottoman dynasty of Turkey to due out though a illness he brought along.” 

Julian nodded in agreement with what his father just said. Edelle had already made a written order that Edward Woodwille was to be locked up in a remote temple for the rest of his life, Henry would remain as a prisoner in the Tower of London until that he would be sent to Turkey in seven months time and Charles was too young to even be able to plot anything on his own, still a boy that had just turned eight, eleven years younger than Julian himself. In any case, Julian intended to take care of his youngest half-brother, and in time arrange a marriage for Charles that would not be a threat to the Tudor dynasty. 

It had always been Edward and Henry who was the main threat, but it was a sweet victory to finally defeat them. 

“Even if I may become overshadowed in history by the people around me, I will only say this then:  **_I did it to prevent a civil war that would have ruined Britannia because of the actions made by the generations before me and Edelle._ ** Though me, two different royal dynasties have joined together into the children I will sire on Edelle, and may our descendants bring a golden age to Britannia in the future.”

It was the legacy Julian intended to leave behind, as a prince who joined several royal claims together into his own family. If it would be done though his children, then the first step had already been taken, in him marrying Edelle and her pregnancy with their first child. 

**Author's Note:**

> Author note: This whole story is inspired by the RL Henry VII Tudor and Elizabeth of York along with some elements of their famous son Henry VIII, and the three abductions of maidens from the Vreta convent which was a series of events that took place in Sweden in the 13th century.


End file.
